Gamer Matters

• PS5
• XSX/S
• 9.1 / 10
• Malaisie

Not many mandatory co-op games are able to pull off the width and variety in experience Split Fiction has to offer. The story may be laden in cliche and the realistic art style is just serviceable. However, the gameplay, whether that be platforming, racing, fighting, and many other verbs you and your partner will be doing across the experience, are more than just serviceable. They are all wonderful, wild and most importantly: good fun. Split Fiction wants you to have a little bit of everything, despite seemingly stretching itself thin, every bit of gameplay feels special. Like how kuah campur, a mixture of different curries being piled on a plate of Nasi Kandar, may look like utter slop, but the wonderful variety of curry mixing together makes for an unforgettable taste. Hazelight has set the bar for co-op games high with their previous title, and with Split Fiction, that bar has been raised yet again.

• PC
• 8.1 / 10
• Malaisie

Two Point Museum is quite a fascinating management game that knows what it wants to do and it excel in making it. A dang fine example of a game that can blend comedy and somehow education in one fell swoop. If you’re a fan of the previous Two Point games, then I recommend getting it on launch.

• PC
• 8.8 / 10
• Malaisie

Civilization 7 is Firaxis showcasing what they have learned over the years to master their craft of creating an incredible strategy game. It’s why this series still has an incredibly dedicated following that plays every one of the Civ games to this day, and this installment just feels like another great addition to its illustrious history.

• PS5
• 80%
• Malaisie

Sonic X Shadow Generations bundles one of the most loved recent entries to the series with a new, refined take of that formula. Sonic Generations is barely a remaster, but it still holds up today. And it serves as a good comparison to the new Shadow Generations game included in this package.

• PS5
• 7.9 / 10
• Malaisie

The best way to enjoy Shadows Of The Damned Hella Remastered is from the perspective of someone who wants to revisit an old game. If you’re expecting this remaster to correct the wrongs of the original or add even more content, then you’ll be sorely disappointed. As a remaster, it does the bare minimum of making the game run smoothly on a modern platform without changing too much of how the original game looks, sounds, and feels. As a game, Shadows Of The Damned definitely deserved a cult following. It’s eccentric blend of horror, rock and roll, and crass silliness isn’t for everyone, but this is the sort of art that must continue to flourish. There’s a bleak future where video games are just mass produced products, focused tested to provide the optimum profit for shareholders. Suda51 and Grasshopper Manufacture’s punk spirit raises multiple middle fingers to that, as their games have always been weird, bucking whatever is trendy and just making whatever they wanted to make. Shadows Of The Damned Hella Remaster probably won’t change your mind if you already have an opinion of the original game. But that it is still around today should make you ponder: wouldn’t it be nice if games with unconventional styles could still be made today and find an audience? It’s time that we give a damn about weird games. And Shadows Of The Damned Hella Remastered is hella weird.

• PS5
• 7.9 / 10
• Malaisie

Gundam Breaker 4 is a solid battle arena action game. The variety of customisation on offer is amazing and should convince more people to pick up the hobby of assembling model kits. The gameplay loop is fine, and there’s a lot of flexibility that allows anyone to pursue their dream Gunpla build without worrying too much about the loot grind. The mission variety is subpar, but everything else in the package is standard. It’s not going to win the hearts of newcomers, but for the series veterans, they probably won’t have it any other way. Gundam Breaker 4 isn’t breaking the mould, and that’s perfectly fine.

• PS4
• 7.3 / 10
• Malaisie

Their version of a summer vacation, no pressure at all with some fun side mini-games on the side. It’s mostly for the fans which isn’t that bad.

• PC
• 85%
• Malaisie

Shin Megami Tensei V has been reborn, manifesting its true form with Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance. The new story route is expansive and worth playing, even for those that have played the original release. The many quality of life additions makes it more playable and accessible, while still retain the rough aspects that gives the series its charm. It’s not too late to jump into SMT V, though it’s a shame that for those that jumped in early, they have to pay more to get the superior, enhanced release. Still, Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance upholds the gold standard of a traditional turn-based RPG, and this enhanced release has refined it to be the best form it can possibly be.

• PC
• 70%
• Malaisie

F1 24 has the makings of being better than last year’s edition but the handling just lets down the entire package. It drowns the goodness that is the new stuff that the career mode has bought on. And while I wouldn’t advise getting it on launch, try it out on EA Play’s Game Trials to see if it suits your fancy.

• XSX/S
• 80%
• Malaisie

MotoGP 24 does one better than the competition by being best at what the series is all about, best racing with the unpredictability of anything that can happen within a weekend and that’s all that this game really needs.

• PC
• 8.3 / 10
• Malaisie

Fabledom absolutely nails its pitch for a wholesome city builder. There’s plenty of opportunities to create your aesthetically pleasing town, and the story objective of having to court another ruler is brilliant and unique. What lies under Fabledom is some good foundations for a survival city builder, but the way the logistics and production chain works makes it difficult to discern what’s wrong in any part of that chain, making troubleshooting such issues less fun and puzzling. Still, in a competitive market such is the city builder genre, Fabledom found its niche, and may it live there and thrive, happily ever after.

• PS5
• 8.1 / 10
• Malaisie

Stellar Blade wears its inspirations on its sleeves, and has some neat ideas by its integration of soulslike mechanics into a character action game. There are certainly parts where this game shines bright, but it has its fair shares of aspects where it could’ve delivered more. And there are parts of the game that may annoy and frustrate players. But for a relatively new team tackling their first big-budget AAA blockbuster game, Shift Up can be proud with its debut entry. Between this game and Lies Of P, it’s cool to see more games of this scale coming out of South Korea. And there’s at least one more coming soon from another established developer. As it is, Stellar Blade is one beautiful rose, and every rose has its thorns.

• PC
• 78.8%
• Malaisie

Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes is one of the most interesting RPGs of this year that helps immortalize its late creator’s work, with the flair that many fans of this sort of game within the genre can thoroughly enjoy. They just need to peel out its intro chapters to find a lot of fun stuff within it. It might not be my favourite game, but it can be someone else’s Game of The Year.

• PC
• 90%
• Malaisie

• PC
• 85%
• Malaisie

Forza Motorsport (2023) does a lot of things right. The new driving physics can be fun to learn and master. The track mastery system makes you want to get good and get faster. The graphics got a big upgrade, and the audio is undoubtedly sublime. The online racing, with its new penalty system, should encourage clean racing to be more of a thing, hopefully. And the AI in single-player mode will race you good but not race you too hard. However, its paradigm-shifting gameplay loop is still room-splitting, and the Builder’s Cup career mode becomes stale rather quick. The wet weather driving feel is also meh. Yet still, despite its flaws, there’s a solid foundation for Turn 10 to continue improving. Forza Motorsport (2023) as a video game release has not reached its full potential yet. It’s still chasing the pack and catching up. But if it can continue this pace as live service, maybe it’ll get there as one of the finest track racing games for the mainstream gamers.

• PC
• XSX/S
• 10 / 10
• Malaisie

he return of Bethesda at its finest, with a game that explores the unknown with how it plays and lands what it wants to achieve with its own brand of RPG style.

• PS5
• 90%
• Malaisie

Armored Core VI Fires Of Rubicon is the best manifestation of FromSoftware’s long-running series. There’s definitely a new Soul inside its Core, unlike any entry before, but also brings about a level of polish and tighter game design that it never had before. The intense boss fights, when you are attuned to what the game demands you off, are adrenaline-pumping fun but it could have been paced out better. The AC customisation is still engrossing with choices upon choices to create that perfect mecha for your playstyle. The presentation and polish here show the true potential of its predecessors that never was realised in full, now being developed by a team of hardened veterans that have shipped multi-million copy blockbuster games. At its core, it’s still a mecha-action game that is structured like the older games. Whether you are a seasoned Raven/Lynx/pilot or not, should you be up for a challenge, AC VI is an action game unlike any other major releases coming this year. May the Fires Of Rubicon continue to be set alight by more and more players jumping into the series. I am already counting days until the next entry arrives.

• XSX/S
• 72.5%
• Malaisie